The Bills have Josh Allen, and he’s in the midst of his most efficient season in the NFL. But a secret weapon has emerged at the right time for Buffalo.
The extra offensive lineman.
Through two games in the playoffs, the Bills have utilized six (or more) offensive linemen on 28.5% of their 80 rush attempts. That’s six more than the team — ironically the Ravens — in second in the usage of that jumbo set.
On those plays, the Bills have averaged 4.9 yards per carry with seven rushing first downs.
And this isn’t anything new Buffalo unveiled for the postseason. It’s been a staple of Joe Brady’s offense all season. From Week 1 to Week 18, the Bills utilized six-plus offensive lineman on 22.8% of their rushes. That’s a crazy-high rate. And they deployed the extra offensive lineman on 148 total snaps — including drop backs — far and away, the most in the NFL. The Titans were second with 87.
To date, the Bills have used this offensive line grouping on 177 snaps and have averaged 5.8 yards per play, the highest average of any team in the NFL. On running plays with six-plus linemen, the Bills average 5.0 yards per carry, the second-highest yards-per-carry clip in football.
This look was key in the highly anticipated divisional-round game against the Ravens, and will likely be an integral facet of Buffalo’s offense in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs.
In the win over the Ravens, the Bills toted the rock 13 times with an extra offensive lineman on the field for 71 yards — 5.1 yards per — including Ty Johnson’s 17-yard run that allowed the Bills to get into victory formation with under two minutes to go.
Interestingly, the Bills’ extra blocker is not a tell for the run direction. Check where No. 70 — Buffalo’s extra linemen Alec Anderson — is aligned on Johnson’s run.
Even on a run on the opposite side of the formation from Anderson, his presence allows the Bills blockers to all bump down one defender. Big advantage for the offensive line.
Of course, Buffalo does occasionally run “behind” Anderson, and doing so worked to perfection on this 16-yard Ray Davis run on the touchdown drive before the end of the first half to give the Bills a 21-10 lead at the break.
With Hollins motioning from left to right, Davis ran behind Buffalo’s bulldozing right tackle Spencer Brown, its best blocking tight end, Dawson Knox, Anderson, and the team’s most ferocious blocking receiver.
Now you’re probably asking yourself, “How well did the extra linemen work for the Bills against the Chiefs in their regular season showdown?”
Interestingly, the Bills only rolled it out four times, and the plays went as follows:
- Allen three-yard scramble
- Allen 24-yard completion to Knox
- James Cook one-yard run
- Cook two-yard run
So 7.5 yards per play, anchored by the pass to Knox, and six yards on three rushes.
Looking at trends of this up-front personnel group, from Week 7 to that Week 11 clash with the Chiefs, Buffalo used it a total of 21 times across five games, or 4.2 plays per game. The Bills only averaged 3.3 yards per rush with six-plus offensive linemen in this span.
Then the switch flipped. The Bills came out of their Week 12 bye and more than doubled the extra-blocker usage, averaging nine plays per game with at least one extra lineman in the five outings from Week 13 to Week 17, before they rested their starters in the regular season finale. If the first two rounds of the playoffs are counted, that number jumps to 9.71 plays per game. And it’s been significantly more effective, as the 5.2 yards-per-rush average in that subset is the best in the NFL.
The Chiefs will know the jumbo package is coming. No doubt. But they only defended four such plays from the Bills in Week 11, exactly when Buffalo’s heavy group wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
It is now.
Even if this grouping gives the Bills a slight edge in the AFC Championship, it’s a win for Sean McDermott’s team.
Because margins become thinner and thinner the closer you get to the Lombardi Trophy.
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Author: Chris Trapasso
January 20, 2025 | 1:25 pm
